Son of Wind, Son of Fire

4: Ari

Ari was really sick and tired of everyone.

They had just walked out of the Exchange, bag in hand, when a group of boys had walked by, laughing and yelling, until they quieted at the sight of Ari. The big leader had walked right up to them, and stepped in their face.

"Whatcha doing, freak? Going off to play pretend?", he had sneered.

Ari had just smiled at him somewhat sweetly, before breaking his nose with a single punch, and storming off.

There weren't many like Ari in Ketterdam, at least not that flaunted it. For that very reason. But Ari wasn't going to hide from their orientation.

So they fell outside of gender, who gave a damn? Certainly not them. People were just scared of what was different, what was not known to them.

"Stupid idiots.", they muttered as they walked away. They hadn't spent all that kruge just to fall into conformity with the people around them.

It had been hard to find a Tailor powerful enough, and willing enough, to help Ari. They carried no sign of gender, their hair cut short, lines of face and body neutral in every way. Even Ari's voice had been changed, smoothed out, so that it was completely neutral. It had taken weeks for all the changes, and a good two thousand kruge, but it was well worth it.

Ari shook their head, walking down the street, glancing around, on edge. They didn't feel safe in Ketterdam, ever. They might have been raised Kerch, but they hated this town.

It reminded them too much of their father, or, rather, their absence of one. 

Ari kicked a rock, sending it skittering across the ground. They watched the Exchange everyday, saw the mercher come and go, but never had the heart to speak to him, to tell him the truth. He seemed so happy not knowing.

They sighed, and continued walking. They hated dwelling on the past, especially when they walked around. They had to be alert, not off somewhere daydreaming. They would probably be mugged for making that mistake.

The clock at the Church of Barter rang just then, marking eight bells. Ari was walking past it as it did, glancing up at the chiming bell. They had always heard the stories when they were younger about Ketterdam, about the Church of Barter, about the huge upset that had gone on their with Kuwei Yul-Bo's auction, his death, and the death of jurda parem. Everyone learned about it from their history tutors. Ari had been intrigued by it, by the stories of how Jan Van Eck had been swindled by Kaz Brekker.

Kaz Brekker. The infamous leader of the Dregs. Ari had met him once, and that had only been because they had been running a letter to him from the Exchange. He had been in the Slat, as expected, his hair in his usual style, long on top, slicked back, trimmed short on the sides, leaning on his infamous crow's head cane. He hadn't said a word to Ari, and Ari hadn't stuck around to see if he would. They wanted to spend as little time as possible anywhere near Brekker.

Ari watched the people walking by as he walked towards East Stave, where they were staying in a small boarding house, as they couldn't yet afford a place of their own. The boarding house was nice; the owner, a stout man named Kord Stauss was extremely kind to Ari, and his wife, Anselma, had been the one to help Ari get a job as a runner. Their child, Micha, was also fluid, and Ari got along with him extremely well. 

As he walked up to the house, he saw Micha seated on the steps out front, reading a book, and glanced up as Ari walked over, and beamed.

"Hey, Ar. How was your day?", he asked, standing up as Ari reached the same step as him. 

Ari smiled." It was good. Yours?", they asked, walking with Micha inside. The small living room like tavern on the first floor had several of the occupants seated on the various couches and chairs around the room, Kord behind the bar, talking and laughing with Sizwe and Tasnim, a Zemeni farmer and his Suli wife, who were visiting her partners for a few months in the off time between harvests.

Ari followed Micha to the bar, sitting up beside him. Kord smiled at the sight of them.

"Ah, how is my favorite runner?", he asked, smiling. Micha scoffed. Micha also worked at the Exchange as a runner, though not all the time like Ari. 

Ari smiled." Good, sir.", they said." There's a large shipment of jurda coming in with the Van Eck company, and everyone is bustling around trying to get a share of it.", they said. 

Kord chuckled. Kord had been a mercher for awhile, until he had married Anselma and had Micha, at which point he decided to sell his company and start an honest boarding house, a rare commodity in Ketterdam, let alone on the outskirts of the Barrel. Ari knew that Kord had known Jan Van Eck, though to what extent, Ari didn't know. They didn't talk much about him. But the controversy that had occurred after Yul-Bo's auction had brought the family into light, especially with Jan's then-teenage son taking over the business, had been talked about all over Ketterdam in the almost 20 years since the incident.

"I would imagine so. That boy's going to be in over his head.", Kord said with a soft chuckle. He turned his back on them, before he handed them each a large mug of water. They weren't big drinkers, Ari because they just didn't like the taste, Micha because the one time he had drank any more than a few sips of alcohol he had ended up revisiting his dinner.

Ari smiled gratefully, and started taking small sips, listening to Sizwe and Tasnim talk, just drifting into their thoughts, most of them drifting to their family, though they squashed those down. They basically had a new family, Kord and Anselma like their parents, Micha like a brother to them.

And as they listened to Kord, Micha, Sizwe and Tasnim talk and laugh, they couldn't be happier.